Abkhaz people who have been forced to leave their homeland in a hard period of the history are living scattered among more than 50 countries. They live mostly in Turkey and Syria. And these people have humanitarian problems to which the international public doesn’t pay attention.

The civil war in Syria is victimizing mostly our people. Despite its limited financial ability, the Abkhazian State has received more than 100 people and embraced them. While international foundations are lending material aid to the countries receiving refugees, Abkhazia is being deprived of aids on the grounds that it is not a UN member country. However, about 10 thousand Abkhazian living in Syria, because of material inadequacy, are struggling without safety of lives to survive. We hope that humanity won’t be sacrificed to politics.

On the other hand, approximately 500 thousand Abkhaz people desire to continue their humanitarian relations with their relatives and fellows in Abkhazia without any obstacles. Our problem is direct inaccessibility to Abkhazia from Turkey. Although there is adequate infrastructure for transportation, we can only access Abkhazia via the Russian Federation with excessive prices because of the partial embargo. We demand the attention of the international public to this problem of ours, too.Feridun AksoyPresident of Turkey's Federation of Abkhaz Associations (ABHAZFED). TURKEY